Major bitcoin industry companies including Digital Currency Group (DCG) subsidiary Genesis Trading and bitcoin hedge fund Binary Financial are set to participate in a government auction of just over 44,000 BTC (worth $18.3m at press time) to be held on Thursday.
Announced in October by the US Marshals Service (USMS), the auction, to be held from 12:00 to 18:00 UTC, will see the sale of the last remaining confiscated from convicted Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison this May.
The initial auction saw investor and Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) partner Tim Draper purchase nearly 30,000 BTC, and was seen by some as a turning point in bitcoin's history, as many took the sale as a sign it was moving toward broader acceptance.
"In terms of the auction, it signaled a really important turning point in framing bitcoin as a legal and legitimate tool," Sunny Ray, president of India-focused bitcoin exchange Unocoin, recalled in conversation with CoinDesk.
The mood around the upcoming auction, however, is markedly more subdued.
CEO Brendan O’Connor said its auction participation was simply a business decision.
“From our perspective, any time we have an opportunity to buy or sell large quantities we take advantage of it. This is just another really good opportunity to do that,” he said.
Involvement unknown
Still, O’Connor suggested he believed many previous auction participants would enter the bidding process for similar reasons, though few confirmed their involvement at press time.
Representatives from Cumberland Mining, Pantera Capital, Falcon Global Capital and investor Tim Draper did not respond to press requests regarding the auction.
Further, the USMS that indicated it would not release figures for the number of auction participants, though it has historically done so on the day of the auctions.
bitcoin exchange founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss told CoinDesk they will not be participating, going so far as to criticize the strategy of doing so:
Gavel image via Shutterstock
DISCLOSURE
Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.